Cook Up Year-Round Profits With Gourmet Foods

What could you have in common with Oprah, Rachael Ray, and Paula Deen? The hottest gourmet and specialty food items that people rave about! Since cooking “gourmet” everyday has made a huge comeback in recent years, by catering to your customer’s love for all things culinary, you can draw in new customers year-round with a great selection of gourmet food items. Having gourmet products on hand for individual sales and to include in gift baskets can boost your sales between holidays and build customer loyalty. Any gift shop or florist can sell knick-knacks and flowers. But what will set you apart from the rest is by carrying high-quality, gourmet food items. FGmarket will introduce you to a few of the many gourmet food suppliers available to help you profit from this trend.

Sweeten Sales with Biscotti – A Scrumptious Gourmet Food

Gourmet coffee is all the rage these days, attracting everyone from teenagers to baby-boomers looking for a pick-me-up in the middle of their hectic schedules. Instead of just offering an array of gourmet coffees, why not upscale your products to include homemade biscotti? Peggy’s Homemade Biscotti offers 37 distinctive flavors of this crunchy Italian cookie that’s great for dipping in a hot cup of coffee. Buy individual flavors or pre-made gift baskets and treat your customers to a bit of homemade heaven. With flavors like Coconut Chocolate chunk, Apricot Macadamia and Butterscotch Toffee, you’ll be sure to draw a crowd looking for more than just a run-of-the-mill gift basket.

Boost Gourmet Sales With Healthy Organics

Because of the renewed emphasis on eating healthy, organic foods’ popularity is on the upswing. You can position yourself as a specialty store for organics that no other retailer can compete with by offering products that appeal to the health-conscious customer. Carrying products from Melissa’s can help set you apart from the rest. Their organic grilling sauces, salad dressings and marinades add that gourmet touch to a BBQ gift basket for Father’s Day; pasta sauces and herb mixes give an Italian gift basket that extra zing; high-quality organic fruits at their freshest make an ordinary fruit basket exceptional. Melissa’s can add that gourmet touch to satisfy your customers’ needs for healthy alternatives.

Go Green with Global Gourmet Goodies

There is now a delicious way to go green! With global awareness and an appreciation of cultural diversity on the rise, offering sweetriot’s chocolate covered cacao beans is the perfect way to show your customers that you care. The socially conscious group at sweetriot offers a variety of cacao beans and chocolate covered cacao beans boasting premium ingredients and innovative artwork. To sweeten the pot, these treats are healthy as well as delicious. All of the products at sweetriot are rich in antioxidants, all natural, low in calories, dairy free, gluten-free, and kosher. These sweet treats are packaged in reusable tins decorated with the artwork of independent artists. Showcasing these global goodies would make not only a colorful and appealing display in your store but a beautiful statement as well.

Spice Up Gourmet Sales with Flame-Roasted Chiles

Fire up your sales throughout the year with products made from New Mexico flame-roasted chile — “the best sweet chile in the world.” Cannon Sweet Hots offers a wide variety of salsas and sauces, from mild to fiery hot, to satisfy every palate. These chiles are so versatile; they can be used in appetizers, entrees, and even as toppings for ice cream! Their gift baskets are customized with items of your choice in chile-shaped baskets. Your customers will love the uniqueness and versatility of these products, but be warned: Sweet Hots chiles are addictive, so stock up!

Spice Up Sales with Upscale Gourmet Products

Paula’s Pepper Jelly offers an array of gourmet food items that will perk up your gift basket business. By adding their gourmet wine, pepper jelly, spices, hot sauces and condiments, you can add that gourmet flair to your gift basket sales. They offer exceptional wines from Washington, Australia and Argentine, and their wide variety of homemade pepper jellies, hot sauces, and condiments boast several award winners that your customers will love.

Savor Increased Sales with a Variety Of Gourmet Sauces

For the best offerings in barbecue sauces, you can’t lose with Head Country Barbecue’s award-winning sauces. Jack Miller Food Products offers their best barbecue sauce, Cajun seasoning blend, and cocktail sauce that will kick up gift basket sales. Golden Harvest Pantry features sauces, mustards, chow chow, vinegars, jams, jellies and honeys. Their Roasted Garlic and Vidalia Onion Salad Dressings are top picks, as well as their Amish jams, jellies and fruit butters.

Enhance Sales With Tasty Gourmet Snacks

Southern Things offers their one-of-a-kind cheese straws called Ginny O’s cheese rings, which were featured in Oprah’s O! magazine as one of their top 100 products. They specialize in great snacks like pork rinds, kettle cooked dirty potato chips and gourmet nuts. Peculiar Spice Company has a variety of mix packages for dips and spreads, soups, sweets and side dishes. Their Hawaiian Cheese Ball mix, Orange Dreamcicle Cheesecake mix and Hawaiian Chicken Salad mix make great additions to a tropical gourmet gift basket.

Beef-up Sales With Gourmet Meats And Seafoods

For those meat-lover customers, burgers and steaks from Elk Meat Shop provide a healthy alternative to beef. These make great gifts in and of themselves, or add a distinctive taste to a grilling or barbecue gift basket. For seafood lovers, try The Great Gourmet’s clam chowder, crab soups, lobster bisque, crab cakes, and their huge variety of fresh fish and seafood direct from Chesapeake Bay.

If you’re looking for a delicious way to perk up your gift basket sales throughout the year and attract new customers, go the gourmet food way. FGmarket’s Gourmet Food suppliers can show the way. Your customers will appreciate the extra efforts you make to bring them exceptional products for their gourmet gift baskets.

Contributor: Jill Evans